


Rumors

by penlex



Series: Fraternal [1]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - No Hale Fire, Gen, High School
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-14
Updated: 2013-07-14
Packaged: 2017-12-20 03:58:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 732
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/882683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/penlex/pseuds/penlex
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Derek may or may not be jealous of how easily his little sister takes to the High School playing field, and he may or may not do a bad thing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rumors

Cora was nervous for her first day of high school, but in just a week she’s managed to wrap every single student and teacher right around her perfect little finger. Derek sees her strut down the hallways like she’s Moses and the cliques of people around her are the Red fucking Sea. He’s surprised they don’t bow or kiss her feet.

It’s not that he’s jealous - he’s popular too, of course. That whole thing comes in a package deal with being good looking, talented, and intelligent. It’s just he thinks it might go to her head or something. She already gangs up on Derek with Laura sometimes, when it’s supposed to be the youngest who gets teased by the elders.

Derek spends the entirety of study hall trying to think of a way to bring Cora down (just a peg or too, of course, too far would not be in her best interests). He works himself up and ends the period surrounded by the fringe of seven pieces of ripped out notebook paper that now have a perfectly clean perforated edge and that he has absolutely zero use for.

He works out his frustration during lacrosse practice, and finally decides on a course of action in the showers. He’ll start a rumor.

He tells someone he barely knows (it’s a strange part of popularity that “fans" tend to have more loyalty than friends, this random person won’t drop his name to anybody) that Cora Hale has a big, embarrassing crush on Johnny Reynolds, a boy on the lacrosse bench who Derek is pretty sure is in Cora’s class.

The rumor spreads like wildfire, and Derek basks in his victory for seven whole school days. Cora’s clothes become a little less revealing, her demeanor a little less arrogant, and she gets a little quieter and leaves him alone at home.

On the eighth day after the rumor started, Derek catches Cora crying on her way to the bathroom while he’s skipping class.

"Cora?" He grabs her by the elbow when she tries to brush past him. “Hey. What’s wrong? What happened?" Cora buries her wet face in Derek’s chest (which is starting to get pretty impressive if he does say so himself), her hands covered in long sleeves bracketing her blotchy cheeks.

"There’s this rumor," she tells him with a sniff, and the guilt slams into Derek harder than the defender of a sorely losing team, right in the solar plexus. Cora describes in hitched detail about how her friends - or who she thought were her friends - had been making fun of her ever since it started going around that she had a crush on Johnny Reynolds, about how he was ugly and unpopular and a nerd and if she dated him she would be too. And then she added, “I wouldn’t even care if it wasn’t true." The words twist in Derek’s gut and he can feel his face scrunch up, eyebrows pulled in and nose wrinkled. He swallows hard and steps back from his hurt little sister.

"Cora," he says after a deep breath. “I started that rumor."

Cora stares at him in shock for second that seem like minutes, before her eyes flash bright, dangerous gold, and she slaps him - with her full strength - across the face. Derek yelps in surprise, but lets her go when she storms away.

Cora avoids him for three days after that, and Derek flinches every time he sees her (which ends up only being at school even though their rooms are right next to each other; she’s a pro). Eventually, Derek can’t take the cold shoulder anymore, and he goes to her door. He stares in, knowing she can smell that he’s there but not having the courage to speak up just yet, watching her slave over what looks like algebra and feeling his own guilt crawl around under his skin like worms.

"Look," he finally blurts. “Just start one about me."

Cora looks up at him from her homework, her smooth hair falling gracefully out from behind her ear where she’d tucked it, and her expression is- bland. It frightens him. One elegant red-brown eyebrow arches, and she says:

"I already did."

Derek’s responding whimper may or may not be dog-like, but certainly if he had a tail it would be tucked between his legs as he slinks back to his own room.

**Author's Note:**

> look me up on [tumblr](http://redblooded-disadvantage.tumblr.com/) for stale meta n fresh memes


End file.
